Thanks to Craigslist I landed a $19k web design deal!!!

Hello Everyone! I wanted to share some great news - about a month ago I posted an ad in the Chicago "Business for Sale" section advertising my web design services, and I had a few leads come in, out of those leads I got one deal which ended up being a $19k web design project, which I just closed

I had posted ads in several CL cities, got some "OK" leads, but after being persistent and patience I got this deal!

A message to ALL my fellow Warriors - put together a game plan, STICK TO IT, DON'T GIVE UP, TEST..TEST..TEST and you'll slowly see results!

I haven't got a thing off Craigslist, but that doesn't stop me from putting up an ad every week or so.

Once again, way to go!

Thanks a lot man. To be honest, I've posted hundreds of ads for months on CL with NO luck. I just got this client at the right time I guess. But I've only gotten 1 other deal from CL and that was under $1000. It's def not my main source of business.

Thanks a lot man. To be honest, I've posted hundreds of ads for months on CL with NO luck. I just got this client at the right time I guess. But I've only gotten 1 other deal from CL and that was under $1000. It's def not my main source of business.

Congratulations, Ahmad. I've posted on Craigslist with varying results (multiple small jobs for the most part), but I've never posted in the "Businesses for Sale" section - how did you phrase/word your ad? I'm curious as to how you made your ad stick in that section.

Congratulations, Ahmad. I've posted on Craigslist with varying results (multiple small jobs for the most part), but I've never posted in the "Businesses for Sale" section - how did you phrase/word your ad? I'm curious as to how you made your ad stick in that section.

Paul

Thanks Paul! I used several different titles and the body just had bulletins of my services,etc.

A few of my ads would get flagged but a majority stick. I haven't done much CL advertising recently as I've got tons of projects I'm working on, but I will be starting again in a few weeks, with some new strategies

That's really great to hear. I've had some success with posting ads on Craigslist since I started two weeks ago.

I got a couple of leads from posting in the resumes section which may seem odd but the people browsing through that section are employers looking to hire someone and have budgeted for a new hire so they have money set aside for a web designer who can help them out.

My current client isn't a big client like yours but after I finish creating an ecommerce site for him I'll get $1,200 which isn't bad for a week starting out as a part time web designer. He also told me he has a referral when I'm done who would has budgeted $6,000- 10,000 for setting up a site for his business.

That's really great to hear. I've had some success with posting ads on Craigslist since I started two weeks ago.

I got a couple of leads from posting in the resumes section which may seem odd but the people browsing through that section are employers looking to hire someone and have budgeted for a new hire so they have money set aside for a web designer who can help them out.

My current client isn't a big client like yours but after I finish creating an ecommerce site for him I'll get $1,200 which isn't bad for a week starting out as a part time web designer. He also told me he has a referral when I'm done who would has budgeted $6,000- 10,000 for setting up a site for his business.

That's not a bad idea, I've got to test that out too! Congrats on your deal too, Thanks!

That's really great to hear. I've had some success with posting ads on Craigslist since I started two weeks ago.

I got a couple of leads from posting in the resumes section which may seem odd but the people browsing through that section are employers looking to hire someone and have budgeted for a new hire so they have money set aside for a web designer who can help them out.

My current client isn't a big client like yours but after I finish creating an ecommerce site for him I'll get $1,200 which isn't bad for a week starting out as a part time web designer. He also told me he has a referral when I'm done who would has budgeted $6,000- 10,000 for setting up a site for his business.

Great advice Ehanson. Just goes to show you that it isn't just about having the best service out there, it's more about placing your self right under the nose of the people who most need that service at that time.

Way to go on thinking creatively on how to be in exactly the right place to be found by a market that's already actively searching for you and what you can offer them!

The-English-Webmistress is really Andrea, who went backpacking the world, accidentally landed in Panama, Central America, and never left. (Beaches! Mountains! Hot latin music! PiÃ±a Coladas!) She doesn't miss the London commute AT ALL...

Hello Atrbiz, and congratulations! It's always so cool to hear about successes like this.

Just curious though ... what made you decide to post in the Chicago "Business for Sale" section of CL? Was there a particular line of thought in doing that, or did you post in that section along with other sections, hoping for the best response?

Hello Atrbiz, and congratulations! It's always so cool to hear about successes like this.

Just curious though ... what made you decide to post in the Chicago "Business for Sale" section of CL? Was there a particular line of thought in doing that, or did you post in that section along with other sections, hoping for the best response?

I posted in the "Biz for Sale" section because of the targeted traffic and of course I only targeted the major cities.

You can definitely find clients on CL but you will need to have patience, as you will get TONS of junk requests: low-ballers,etc. Like I said earlier besides this $19k project I've only gotten one other client and they spend about $100-$200/month for website maintenance.

That's awesome! It's great to see that Craigslist is still alive and pumping for business.
I know they've got a lot of restrictions now.

Congratulations man!
Gil

Thanks a lot Gil! Craigslist has only gotten me a few deals (including this 19k project) but besides that I get a lot of "junk" requests. It's definitely not my main source of business, but you can pick up a few nice deals from it

High Quality Backpage, Kijiji, Gumtree Classified Ads Posting Services. Service that brings Value. Get Traffic & Increase SEO at the same time! Prices are starting from 0.09$ per AD. PM Me for more info

Ahmad, thats a great tip, concerning posting in "businesses for sale". I used to get a lot of leads on CL, but everything seems to get flagged lately.
_____
Bruce

Hey Bruce, yes it's definitely a great section to post in as it's targeted traffic. Give it a try!
The key to posting ads on CL is make each one unique. But CL has become more strict and they are definitely quick to flag a spammy/duplicate post.

Did you pay anything to post the ad on Craigslist, or was it free? I ask because some folk have said in the past that placing an ad on Craigslist for something local in their neighborhood they only had to pay $25, or something like that. But, the only catch is that the ad ages fast, but you'll have alot of eyeballs on it in a matter of minutes. So did you place one of those $25 ads in order to land the almost $20k website design job? =)

How do you do that? Different IPs? Multiple PVAs? CL is not as easy as it used to be

Thanks....Mike

Originally Posted by cartks

Look for hosts that offer dedicated IP addresses, they are higher in price but its worth it. The least expensive I have seen was I believe 4 dedicated ips for $20 per month, this includes the host and the ips.

Originally Posted by Candela

Thanks,you just motivated me to create a couple Craigslist ads,after all it is all about "testing,testing,testing",right?

Stay motivated and persistent! And yes it's all about testing, testing, testing! Go get it!!!

Guys - CL is hugely lucrative. We sign about $10k in new SEO business every month (that's recurring billing) just with CL. If you're not posting in CL, you're missing a huge market.

Remember, CL is the 10th largest website in the US in terms of traffic... Do you think people go their for SEO services? Yup. They do. Definitely post there...and often.

What is your strategy for finding seo clients on craigslist? I tried to get them in the door by selling them a free website using some of the WSO wordpress themes I bought. After 200 emails not one response!

I would scrape by picking a niche, like landscapers and then scrape it by searching for the ones with gmail and yahoo etc account because most times they don't have a site. Not one bite! Even for a $100 site!

How do you do that? Different IPs? Multiple PVAs? CL is not as easy as it used to be

Thanks....Mike

Look for hosts that offer dedicated IP addresses, they are higher in price but its worth it. The least expensive I have seen was I believe 4 dedicated ips for $20 per month, this includes the host and the ips.

I have a quick question: Do any of the Warriors out there know of a Good Quality piece of software to post "Business Opportunities" on many of the thousands of classified sites that are out there? I have a legit Offline Licensing opportunity that I need to spread the word for and the classified sites seemed to be the best locations outside of the Franchise Brokering sites to list these sorts of opportunities.

Any feed back on the best Classified Posting Software would be much appreciated !!!

I have a quick question: Do any of the Warriors out there know of a Good Quality piece of software to post "Business Opportunities" on many of the thousands of classified sites that are out there? I have a legit Offline Licensing opportunity that I need to spread the word for and the classified sites seemed to be the best locations outside of the Franchise Brokering sites to list these sorts of opportunities.

Any feed back on the best Classified Posting Software would be much appreciated !!!

Thanks! I'm not sure about your question, maybe another Warrior can answer

Any feed back on the best Classified Posting Software would be much appreciated !!!

From what i've tried in the past, none of the classified advertising software that i've used didn't produce anything.

Okay well it did do one thing... it temporarily increased my backlink count for 30 days and then the number of backlinks disappeared. And i DIDN'T get an increase of traffic using the software.

One of the biggest problems was that, the software that i used "supposedly" posted to hundreds of classified ad sites, and the ad should have been visible there immediately.

But after 2 days, i tried checking on over 20 of these classified ad sites, and none of my ads were listed there.

Needless to say, i was upset and wanted my money back. And i didn't get it back. Plus my classified ads weren't listed anymore. If you want permanent traffic and backlinks, just do article marketing. Plus it's free.

Hope you know what you are doing and are able to deliver a professional product... that's enough money to where they'll probably have other webdesign professionals, and lawyers, watching what you are doing to make sure it's up to snuff as per industry standards and best practices.

Hope you know what you are doing and are able to deliver a professional product... that's enough money to where they'll probably have other webdesign professionals, and lawyers, watching what you are doing to make sure it's up to snuff as per industry standards and best practices.

Hope all goes well...

I hired a CPA and attorney when starting my business. It's been worth every penny and they always answer any legal/accounting questions I'm not 100% sure of.

I've been providing Web Design and SEO to offline clients the last 4 years and I've always delivered - so I've never had to worry about not being able to deliver, whether it's a $1k or $19k project - I just make sure that I set the expectation upfront with my client and give them realistic delivery dates,etc.

That truly is a diamond in the rough you connected with on CL! Congrats and also kudos for pricing your services based on their value and not necessarily what the masses may be charging. Your work is obviously priced appropriately since you landed the deal - best of luck and I hope it results in a steady stream of work for you

For my local area (not big enough for servers) I got a dedicated DSL line just for posting on my local CL. One post per day, per IP, per email address, just reset modem ---> new IP address!

For bigger cities I get a Virtual Private server in that city with however many IP's that they will give me (just tell them you need different IP's for each of your sites for SEO purposes) Icann is running out of ip4 addresses so you will need a good reason.

Same routine for posting here. VNC into server and use foxyproxy switcher with all your IPs inserted and post, one post per ip, and each on a different email address. Just forward all the emails to one mail email address.

I get flagged all the time but as long as I stick to the one,one,one rule my ads almost never get ghosted or removed.

Hello Everyone! I wanted to share some great news - about a month ago I posted an ad in the Chicago "Business for Sale" section advertising my web design services, and I had a few leads come in, out of those leads I got one deal which ended up being a $19k web design project, which I just closed

I had posted ads in several CL cities, got some "OK" leads, but after being persistent and patience I got this deal!

A message to ALL my fellow Warriors - put together a game plan, STICK TO IT, DON'T GIVE UP, TEST..TEST..TEST and you'll slowly see results!

Thanks,
Ahmad

Totally agree with this one. I will be releasing a WSO soon based on what I know. Everyone knows something. Figure out a way to make a product or service and never quit!

Hello Everyone! I wanted to share some great news - about a month ago I posted an ad in the Chicago "Business for Sale" section advertising my web design services, and I had a few leads come in, out of those leads I got one deal which ended up being a $19k web design project, which I just closed

I had posted ads in several CL cities, got some "OK" leads, but after being persistent and patience I got this deal!

A message to ALL my fellow Warriors - put together a game plan, STICK TO IT, DON'T GIVE UP, TEST..TEST..TEST and you'll slowly see results!

What is your strategy for finding seo clients on craigslist? I tried to get them in the door by selling them a free website using some of the WSO wordpress themes I bought. After 200 emails not one response!

I would scrape by picking a niche, like landscapers and then scrape it by searching for the ones with gmail and yahoo etc account because most times they don't have a site. Not one bite! Even for a $100 site!

My strategy has always been consistently posting ads on Craigslist, and creating simple ads nothing complex or flashy. I'll admit I've only gotten a few large projects which is still good but I've gone through a lot of tire kickers too.

Originally Posted by acebingo2006

hey that is amazing.... what do you think was the reason they chose you?
was it the way you word your ad or your pitch or what?
come on com on time to spill some beans

Well I conduct myself as a professional consultant, and actually make sure to deliver. I also ALWAYS make sure to not to give a dirt cheap quote, and if clients don't want to pay higher than I'll just turn them away.

Originally Posted by joshb84

Congrats on the CL deal! Maybe I need to work on my ad writing skills. So far no luck for me off CL.

Originally Posted by Andres1986

Wow, congrats! keep up and scale up now!

Originally Posted by bartm

Wow awesome story! Nice price for a website

Originally Posted by sdentrepreneur

I have used Craigslist for many years with hit and miss results. It can get tricky with all their posting rules and white listing. Congrats on the big sale, sadly, that is not the norm.

Originally Posted by Cabbey

Congratulations to you!

Keep up the good work. Perseverance does pay off.

Originally Posted by moneymakersguide

Congrats, what a great start!

Thanks everyone! Honestly their is no real magic just being consistent with posting ads, testing out different ad copy, and making sure I keep things simple...

Now that you've already sold a project worth $19,000, you have the opportunity to position yourself at the premium end of the market. See if you can keep your fees nice and high, with big projects and lots of value added.

You had the add listed in Businesses for Sale? Do you mind sharing the add format you used?

Congrats.

Originally Posted by atrbiz

Hello Everyone! I wanted to share some great news - about a month ago I posted an ad in the Chicago "Business for Sale" section advertising my web design services, and I had a few leads come in, out of those leads I got one deal which ended up being a $19k web design project, which I just closed

I had posted ads in several CL cities, got some "OK" leads, but after being persistent and patience I got this deal!

A message to ALL my fellow Warriors - put together a game plan, STICK TO IT, DON'T GIVE UP, TEST..TEST..TEST and you'll slowly see results!

Are you putting in a link to your site, phone number or having them email you or respond to the ad for info?

I am just wondering with using multiple accounts. You can change the account and ips but if you are linking to your site then I would think that would throw up a red flag.

I realize you can use different phone numbers, link photos from different accounts ect. Just mainly wondering if you are linking to your site (unless you have multiple sites) and how you are getting prospects to respond to you.

Wow...I originally created this thread in 2011 and we're about to hit 2017! I thought I'd update my fellow Warriors...I'm still running my web development agency and business has been consistent. I've been focusing on PPC, sales team/strategic networking, and Craigslist to sign on new clients. I'm still generating leads via CL, however, unfortunately the lead volume and quality is not consistent.

My team and I currently develop custom Drupal and Wordpress sites for clients that pay $10k-$20k+ for their site build and additional for on-going support. I enjoy working with larger companies and government organizations as they have the budget, and understand web development is not an overnight process

Internet marketing has become key in determining whether a business moves to the next level or stagnates. Content, Search engine optimization, web analytics, and social media are some of the ...
[read more]